Flying Gurnard

Fascinating facts about the Flying Gurnard

• A fish that can stretch 20-inch “wings” right on the ocean floor – the flying gurnard flashes bright-blue tips on its pectoral fins when excited.
• Weighing up to 4 lb and measuring half a meter long, the flying gurnard uses a single robust fin ray like a tiny shovel, digging 1-7 cycles per second at 1.15–3.74 Hz to uncover hidden bivalves and crustaceans. Its precise, rhythmic burrowing reveals a specialized feeding technique rarely seen in flat-finned fish.
• When it hunts, the gurnard creates a suction vacuum with its mouth after loosening sediment, pulling small fish and invertebrates straight into its throat. This combo of mechanical digging and oral suction demonstrates a dual-tool approach to feeding on the sea bottom.
• The species can shift its skin from deep brown to almost white, matching sand, rock, or coral textures around it. Such rapid color adaptation lets it blend into vastly different Atlantic habitats, from the chilly waters off Massachusetts to the warm reefs of the Caribbean.
• Scientists have recorded two distinct grunts – a 225 Hz burst lasting about 30 ms and a 170 Hz pulse lasting 110 ms – that the gurnard alternates.

At a glance

About the Flying Gurnard

The flying gurnard (Dactylopterus volitans), a monotypic member of the family Dactylopteridae, glides across the sandy bottoms of tropical and warm-temperate Atlantic waters, from Massachusetts and the Caribbean to the English Channel and Angola. Growing to about 50 cm (20 in) and weighing up to 1.8 kg (4 lb), it displays a mutable palette of brownish-green hues punctuated by reddish or yellowish patches, while its large eyes scan the substrate for hidden prey. Its most striking feature is the pair of wing-like pectoral fins, each split into a digging side with flexible, segmented rays and a robust unsegmented edge, and a posterior side of stiff rays; when excited, the translucent fins flash a phosphorescent bright-blue at the tips, giving the illusion of flight.

More fish to discover

Browse Feravox